CoorsTek Wins at New York City Ceremony Celebrating 31 Years of Honoring Innovators and Innovation

Golden, Colo. – CoorsTek, Inc., the world’s leader in engineered ceramics, announced today that it has been named a winner at the Edison AwardsTM, a competition that recognizes and honors innovative new products, services and business leaders across the globe. CoorsTek’s active ceramic membrane technology won the 2018 Gold Edison Award in the category of Energy and Sustainability.

Randel Mercer, chief technology officer of CoorsTek, Patricia M. Mishic, chief commercial officer of CoorsTek, and Per Vestre, managing director at CoorsTek Membrane Sciences, joined hundreds of senior executives from some of the world’s most recognized companies to acknowledge the hard work and commitment of all the 2018 Edison Award winners.

“CoorsTek is extremely honored to receive the Gold Edison award for our active ceramic membrane technology,” said Mercer. “This is the culmination of decades of global research collaboration.”

Natural gas makes up a large portion of the world’s hydrocarbon resources, but much of it is stranded without economically viable paths to market. The active ceramic membrane one-step conversion process is also economical at much smaller volumes due to its improvement in efficiency and yield. These factors alter the equation for production of vital commodities, including hydrogen and liquid hydrocarbons, in favor of natural gas over crude oil.

“The active ceramic membrane enables cleaner, simpler and less expensive conversion of natural gas to fuels and chemicals than existing chemical processing technologies,” said Vestre. “They make production of hydrogen from abundant, low-cost natural gas so efficient that it has the potential to make hydrogen production a cleaner and more economical option for automotive fueling.”

CoorsTek active ceramic membrane technology can be applied to a growing variety of energy conversions. Research indicates that ceramic membranes can be a competitive technology for hydrogen production with integrated carbon capture, even at a scale required for cost-effective ammonia production. Hydrogen is an energy carrier for next-generation fuel cell electric vehicles and is already an important molecule for a range of industrial processes from food processing to manufacturing of glass and semiconductors, with ammonia-based fertilizers as the single largest application for hydrogen today.

“We are excited to see our vision to make the world measurably better come to life through the research and development of membrane technology like active ceramic membranes,” said Mishic. “Our goal at CoorsTek is to nurture partnerships with customers across all industries and technologies to help solve their toughest technical and product challenges using the high-performance benefits of engineered ceramics. We are consistently evaluating new markets and applications where ceramics bring value and future potential.”

The ballot of nominees for the Edison Awards was judged by a panel of more than 3,000 leading business executives including past award winners, academics and leaders in the fields of product development, design, engineering, science and medical. The winners were recognized at a ceremony in New York City on April 11, 2018.

The Edison Awards is a program conducted by Edison Universe, a non-profit, 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to fostering future innovators. The Awards have been recognizing and honoring the best in innovations and innovators since 1987. They honor game-changing innovations that are at the forefront of new product and service development, marketing and human-centered design, and are one of the highest accolades a company can receive in the name of successful innovation. For more information about the Edison Awards complete program and a list of past winners, visit www.edisonawards.com.